I want to speak about my personal experiences in life. This won't be a typical opinion blog on the sport of wrestling like my previous blogs but will really focus on the opportunities or lack thereof for different individuals.
My name is Jesse Drennen. I founded the $Bmoney Beastin' brand over the summer of 2022. During my youth I went to 16 different elementary and middle schools in four different states. I would be able to start things but never finish them. During my 3rd grade football season, I was the fullback and linebacker on a first-place team and had to walk a mile and a half every day to just get to practice. I remember 6th grade being asked to "wrestle" and thinking I would have a mask like Rey Mysterio and call myself Jey Nicasio. As kids we definitely had imaginations, eh? I went to practice and realized what it was. Let me tell you, was I surprised! I don't think I had ever run that much in one day to that point in my life. It was very much start and stop for me with the sport of wrestling. We moved again and again. I never had the opportunity to improve to the point where I enjoyed it. I simply never had that opportunity. I ended up sticking with football and ended my senior season on the all-area dream team as a defensive end. I enjoyed high school football, but I always wonder what could have been in the sport of wrestling. I even went to a high school that was producing year in and year out state championships at the time. I just truly assumed I was so far behind that it didn't matter. I've truly always been a fan of the sport. I see how everything about it builds hardworking and high character individuals. I just never had the opportunity to sit still long enough to completely absorb it so to speak.
At 21 I had my oldest son. I had sort of went down the wrong road to that point in my life and made a lot of mistakes. I even thought at the time becoming a young father was yet another one. But I have to say that Bryson has truly been a highlight in my life. He was born in late September, and I was scared to death. I didn't know the mother very well as we had only been together for a few months. I was about to be responsible for another person, and that was terrifying. Once I seen him, I knew I would do anything for him. Parents that are reading this will understand completely what I just wrote. I knew I would go above and beyond to ensure he had more and could accomplish more in his life than I was afforded. I knew I was going to do everything in my power to ensure he had the opportunities that I didn't.
At age 4 Bryson had a friend that was going to play pee-wee football. I thought to myself "4 and 5-year-old football had to be like a big Chinese fire drill" and I wasn't far off. He told me he wanted to play and after trying to tackle a referee, running the ball in the wrong direction, and even talking to a little girl from another team while a play was going on, (Yes, I'm laughing as I type) the season had ended. He seemed to enjoy it but was far from very good at it. Later that winter the same friend asked him to play basketball. Where we lived at the time didn't have a wrestling program within two hours in any direction, which did bug me. I remember even speaking to the director of the community recreation to start a program and he said that it would never work and shut it down. I was irritated at that, but let it go. So, Bryson played basketball. I'm almost sure he shot around 3% on the season and asked me constantly what the point was running one direction to turn around and run the other when nobody ever made a shot. 4 and 5-year-old basketball scores were like wrestling decisions 3-2. Like most kids, the spring led to T-Ball. I signed him up and he played a season on the ball fields. At this point I didn't know what the future would hold for my son or myself. I just knew I was trying to give him any opportunity that I could while providing stability in his life. Something I really never had until 9th or 10th grade.
Fast forward to a month before his 6th birthday. We had moved back into the area I grew up in and we were driving home from school. During this time, if my little man needed to go number one, I had about 30 seconds to find somewhere. We had stopped on the side of highways, behind dumpsters, wherever we could at times. I'm not kidding when I say 30 seconds ha-ha. We were passing a rec center and I pulled in and we ran to the door. About 10 seconds left before an accident. The janitor let us in, and he went to the bathroom. As I was standing there waiting, I saw a sign on the wall. The ERWC a local wrestling club in the area. It had a phone number, so I took a picture of the flyer, and we headed home. About an hour later I asked him if instead of playing basketball would he like to wrestle. The way he replied I'll never forget "Yeah that sounds better than running back and forth". Little did he know that he was about to be running a lot more ha-ha.
I called the number and found out about practice times and such. I was a single dad at this time with Bryson and his younger brother. I was on a budget and things were super tight. I scrounged together the sign-up fee, then I realized about shoes, headgear etc. that he would need. Then I was hit with registration fees for tournaments and so on. We've all been there at some point in time during our life. I always went back to the mantra I remember thinking to myself the day he was born. How I would ensure he always had better than me and more opportunity than me. I always found a way. I won't mention every way I found (nothing illegal), but I am sure there's some immoral things in there. But he never knew the difference. This scenario is why I began producing more affordable wrestling shoes. I wanted to help parents on a budget to allow their kids the opportunity to wrestle. To date, I have provided shoes at little to no cost to clubs and teams in 28 states. I sure hope one of those kids changes the world.
He would wrestle his first season from November to February and even place 3rd in the region tournament and qualify for state. I was impressed how quickly he picked up the sport, even after hating it the first few days (the running thing remember ha-ha) But he decided to start playing baseball before the state tournament and didn't go that season. A week after the state tournament the coach called me and asked if he would come in and wrestle with some of the kids going to AAU nationals. I asked him and he did. During the practice, he decided he wanted to go. I didn't have the money at the time to take him on such short notice as I was having to budget week to week as we all do. I felt in that moment that I had failed him. I even lied and told him that registration was closed. It was a true low spot for me personally. I vowed to always stay ahead of things better, if for no other reason than for him and his brother's sake.
Since that first season, I have been able to do just that. To date, Bryson has been a 7x state placer, 3x finalist, 1x triple crown champion, Tulsa All-American, USAW Freestyle All-American, 1 loss through his middle school career (school team), and a lot of other things I just don't even remember. I always budgeted to ensure he could attend camps and clinics. Got him into the best practice rooms I could find. I gave him OPPORTUNITES that I never had myself. By no means is my big dawg the best in the country or anything, but he has developed a real foundation for the sport and has accomplished quite a bit for a kid from his background. I'm truly proud of him in every sense of the word. I also learned to truly love the sport of wrestling on a level I never thought possible.
In late 2021 I was blessed monetarily on a business venture I had spent nearly 7 years working on for little pay. I decided in that moment to create something that would help kids like I was. To attempt to provide opportunities. I wasn't exactly sure what it would be. I knew the name would be $Bmoney Beastin' but what even was that? I began thinking and writing down ideas. I filed for an LLC. If you didn't know this company is $Bmoney Beastin' Athletics LLC. Still with no idea what it was. I started by reaching out to a long-time wrestling coach of my son who owned a print shop near us. I asked him who was really good at branding and design. He led me to my future partner and former southern conference champion at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Quantal Langford. I briefly knew about Quantal and had spoken to him in a message here and there over the years but didn't really know him that well. I sent him a message and within a few weeks he had created the first brand identity of the brand. It was surreal feeling. Something you think of that becomes something real.
I thought originally that I would use the brand to be a "Champion" or "Everlast" of this generation and develop a clothing brand that would assist parents on a budget with unique designs and affordability, but I always knew it was a wrestling brand in my heart and soul. I began printing BMB t-shirts, hoodies, gym shorts, joggers along with anything else I could come up with, with an industrial press and selling them locally when able. Quickly I realized this wasn't what it is. This isn't going to afford anyone an "opportunity", so I started over from scratch. I had the website built and began thinking of the niche I wanted to be a part of. During conversations with my soon to be partner, I realized that wrestling shoes were very expensive. It is a hard sell for youth, middle and high school coaches to tell parents they need shoes, headgear, AAU and USA memberships, along with the travel costs etc. I thought "How can $Bmoney Beastin' ease this burden?" and we landed on the affordable wrestling shoes.
The Version 1 was released in December of 2022 with a small quantity left today. People that purchased them really seemed to like them, but I wasn't crazy about the design. It wasn't the true brand identity yet. It was just a jumping off point. We all have to start somewhere.
In May of 2023, we released the Version 2. I liked these much better and could sell them at a much better price point for parents on budget. I really liked that. It seemed though by saying "affordable" people assumed cheap. It really wasn't working the goal of providing "affordable" wrestling shoes to those on a budget. I felt defeated, but just like wrestlers after a loss, I shook it off and kept going. Eventually we began selling bulk pairs to low-income clubs and even made a donation to Beat The Streets - Detroit this past January to ensure their club kids had wrestling shoes and the "opportunity" to wrestle.
Prior to the release of the of the Version 2, my partner who is truly one of the best graphic artists in the United States suggested a mascot for the BMB brand. I was a tad conflicted about it, but I have to say that our guy 'MB' is one of my favorite parts of the brand itself. 'MB' or Mat Beast as we call him was the first character in what would eventually become the BMB universe. Hammer would be added later on as MB's nemesis and from there we added Naty to have our first female character. Late last year when we began really thinking though an Uno style wrestling game with these characters, we realized we needed to add a couple in order to diversify the card game. Scrap was born and added as MB's practice partner and JV was added as that one kid that will never make varsity but keeps showing up ha-ha. It really balanced out the BMB universe that we will continue to expand upon as time passes. These five characters are the base for the upcoming Wave 1 release of the Mat Clash card game. Mat Clash plays out in transition of a wrestling match in an Uno style format. It is really fun, and I truly hope it brings more kids into the great sport of wrestling. Additionally, we hope to create a sort of secondary market with producing 'Waves' with different short print specialty cards in each and every 'Wave' that are unique to that specific 'Wave'. Wave 1 has the 'Feet-To-Back' and the 'Comeback' card. Poor JV is getting smashed in that 'Feet-To-Back' card ha-ha.
Jumping back to the wrestling shoes, in March of this year we released the limited edition BMB Ultimate Version 3. We added 'MB' to the shoe design and implemented the BMB graffiti logo that I truly felt gave the brand a whole new look and feel. As I am being vulnerable and transparent in this blog post, I will tell you where the inspiration for the graffiti logo came from. I was working with a vendor late one night and a repeat of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air came on. I turned around and looked just as Will Smith was spray painting the wall and the cop was shaking his night stick at him in the introduction. Honestly, that was it ha-ha. The Version 3 has a small quantity left in stock and ships in a custom shipping box. Check them out if you get a few minutes.
In closing, we all have reasons behind things we do. We all have experiences that lead us to be passionate about something. If you're still with me to this point, you can see what the true meaning behind Show Up. Show Out. is. It is showing up to the opportunities you are afforded and showing out to the best of your ability by taking advantage of them. I am in no way trying to compete with the Nike or Rudis's of the world. We are two guys with a dream of making a difference through this sport we have grown to love so much. We are just trying to create our small niche within the wrestling community. I have been thinking lately of setting up either a yearly summer camp for underprivileged kids to come wrestle while bringing in guest coaches from the area, or maybe a year-round club that has a different theme every night from a different club in the area. For instance, Monday night could be 'Grindhouse' night and bring in coach Pitts. Just one example, but my wheels are definitely turning on how to continue to grow the brand into what it will and can be. I truly appreciate you getting to know us better and reading this all the way through. If we can be of any assistance to you in any way, please send us a message through the 'Contact Us' at bmoneybeastin.com we will respond very quickly. We hope you decide to jump on board and give us a chance. We're just real people trying to do real things. Also, if you would like to get involved in the BMB movement in any way, send us a message, it takes a village.
This time in my life, I hope to be able to finish something I start.
God Bless,
Jesse Drennen
Founder $Bmoney Beastin' Athletics LLC.
Show Up. Show Out.
Info@bmoneybeastinathletics.com
